Another tied series heads to the cauldron of the Peace and Friendship Stadium as Olympiacos welcomes Barcelona to Piraeus.
Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos: 'I believe that our fans will give us big boost'
Seasons
3 Dk okuma
Playoffs
Game 3
Playoffs
playofflar b
Olympiacos PiraeusOLY
8082
FC BarcelonaBAR
playofflar b
Overview
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The Reds will hope to welcome back Kostas Papanikolaou after he missed last week's games with a fever, and will also hope that Isaiah Canaan can resume his usual scoring exploits after being held to just 2 free throws in Game 2 on Friday.
Barca's Game 2 triumph was led by 24 points from Jabari Parker, including 4-for-7 three-point shooting. But the Blaugranas have suffered from inconsistent guard play so far in the series, and Nico Laprovittola has been particularly quiet with averages of just 7 points and 2.5 assists so far.
This has been by far the most defensive series, with neither team scoring more than 77 points yet, and that's likely to continue as both coaches Georgios Bartzokas and Roger Grimau focus on limiting turnovers and protecting the backboard. As such, the rebounding abilities of Moustapha Fall and Filip Petrusev up against Jan Vesely and Willy Hernangomez will be a significant factor in the outcome.
Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach
"I believe that our fans will give us big boost. Everybody talks about how important the home advantage is. That’s what we all fought for during the regular season. We did not secure it in the regular season, but somehow, we did it now. We are privileged to have it, as Barcelona was privileged in the two previous games. But we are not looking far away. We are focused on tomorrow’s game and we will be ready to fight for every possession. We must be solid offensively and defensively, follow our plan and it’s also very important to control our emotions. Papanikolaou rejoined team practices yesterday. He lacked some strength. He will not need to play 30 minutes, obviously, but he will be available. I think he will be able to help us."
Nikola Milutinov, Olympiacos player
"In the first game we fought more, we hustled more. In the second game, I do not know if we were tired and that was the reason, but we did not hustle as we did in the first game. So, in front of our fans, in full gym and with their great support we have to play even better than the first game we won, and give our everything to get the win."